"Extinct" Animals Are Still With Us

Animals are going extinct, though some are still turning up. This is true. In the past 100 years many species have been declared extinct. Oddly, a third of these have been found still living. Many have not been seen for a very long time. This is the reason for them still being around.

The okapi a zebra-like animal was recently re-found in the Congo. In Cuba the solenodon "rat" was seen jumping around. Another find was the Indonesian Talaud Flying Fox. In Australia the rock rat was identified. And the Christmas Island shrew came to light.

This is embarrassing for the conservationists about to meet in Japan at the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity. It appears that emotion has won out over rationality. It is too easy to make predictions about what will happen in the future. With climate change, little real knowledge is available to researchers, though change is occurring. Perhaps now more cautious steps will be taken.